Celebration Legal Essays

Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ...that Parliament in enacting legislation was doing something that was not at any rate within the acknowledged powers of any other court. But the point is that the difference between the powers of Parliament and those of the lower courts is not sufficient to make it necessary to place Parliament in an entirely separate category. It is assuredly "the highest and most authentical court of England," but it nevertheless remains a court, not an institution sui generis. The general idea underlying the expression "High Court of Parliament" appears to 'be this. The private individual with a grievance applies to the king's court for redress, and if his claim is wellfounded will obtain it; and the decision by becoming a precedent will have an application far wider and more lasting than the particular case. It will, in fact, form part of the general law of the realm. But grievances may exist for which no appropriate legal remedy suflices, or which mayafiect the realm at large, or a considerable portion of it. To remedy these, recourse must be had to the grand inquest of the nation--the High Court of Parliament. But the redress of grievances by Parliament and their redress by other courts were matters differing in degree, not in kind. At the same time this explanation must not be pressed too far. The legislators of the sixteenth century quite realized what they were doing, but they would have recognized limits to the scope of legislation, such as the law of nature, that their successors have abandoned. 41. It is fair to state that the view here presented of Smith's ideas on sovereignty and the powers of Parliament are in some conflict with the very high authority of Sir Frederick Pollack ("History of the Science of...show more